Day 13
"0度 ~ 10度, 刮风"
That was the weather forecast for today. We didn't really believe that the temperature could drop by 10 degrees Celcius (the previous day's temperature range was from 7 degrees Celcius to 17 degrees Celcius). It didn't sound logically plausible. So anyway, we made our way to 园明园. 园明园 was built during the most prosperous period of the Qing dynasty, during Kang Xi's reign. It is situated close to the famous Summer Palace. Filled with awe-inspiring architecture, the park used to symbolize China's enormous political & economic power. However, the park was almost annihilated after attacks by England and France. Everything that could be stolen, was stolen. Anything that couldn't be stolen, was smashed. Anything that couldn't be smashed, was razed to the ground. Even corrupt Chinese officials took this opportunity to raid the treasures found in 园明园. What was left were just ruins & stone structures that were able to withstand the fires.
To speak the truth, what really grabbed our attention wasn't the ruins, but the beautiful autumn scenery & the strong winds. We never experienced such strong winds in Singpore! When the wind blows, it would shake the trees so vigorously, leaves would fall from the trees like snow. Everyone was just gasping in delight! Great photo opportunity! :D In addition, 园明园 has patches of exposed sand here & there. So when the wind blows, it would pick up the sand & blow it everywhere, making it resemble a sand storm. It was so cool! Everyone had to wear a mask because of that.
After lunch, we visited 首都博物馆. It was supposedly better than 城市规划馆, but we only had 1 hour to explore the museum so we didn't get a chance to explore most of the exhibits, which was quite a pity. According to the brochures that we took, there were exhibitions on ancient porcelain art,Ming-Qing classical paintings, ancient calligraphy, ancient stationery & other utensils, works of bronze, ancient jade art, ancient buddhist statues and more. Quite an interesting array, I must say!
After which, we visited 天坛, a place where His Majesty would offer prayers & incense to the Heavenly Jade Emperor. We noticed that the temples were all circle in shape. According to 朱导游, this is due to the concept of “天圆地方". So since this was a place of worship to the heavens, the temples were naturally round. 天坛 was muchmore impressive than 故宫. This could most probably be attributed to the fact that 故宫 was undergoing major construction works during our visit, whereas for 天坛, it had just undergone maintanence works, so it looked brand new. There was a 回音壁 which could supposedly allow yourself to be heard clearly even though you are just whispering. It didn't work for most of us though, because the place was just too noisy. There was also a 天心石 which you could step on & shout. You will supposedly be heard very loudly. *laughs* We didn't think it was the case though, because anyone who tried to stand on the stone & shout still sounded like how they normally do. 天坛 was really cold vis-a-vis 园明园, we think it was because 天坛 was located on a higher ground level.
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9:00 PM
Day 12 天安门，故宫，现代文学馆
Today we visited the well-known Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We realized something interesting! The new portrait of Chairman Mao is being put up every year on China’s national day on the 1st of October. Touring the Forbidden City made us realized the dexterity of our forefathers. Those structures were constructed with such skill that I think no machine, regardless of how advanced the technology is, can ever imitate. Furthermore, now we see how bored the Emperors must have been without any sources of entertainment. For that, we cherish the goggle box in our living room now!
Next, we headed off to 现代文学馆. We seldom have any exposure to Chinese Literature, so we thought this would be a good chance for us to know more about the world of Chinese writers. From the informative explanation of the amiable guide, we got to know about famous authors such as 鲁迅, 冰心, 郭沫若, 张艾玲etc. It was definitely an experience!
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9:00 PM
Day 11
On Thursday, we had a real activity-packed day. We woke up in the morning extremely excited, as the teachers had said that we would go to the Great Wall today, if the weather was fair. Indeed, it was extremely sunny.
Soon after breakfast, we boarded the bus to travel to the Ming tombs, where we were to visit the biggest tomb of all - Ding Ling. After descending down a few flights of stairs, we entered the underground chamber in which the Ming empreror was buried. It was extremely crowded, and none of us in the group really enjoyed ourselves. However, the replicas of the artifacts originally found in the tomb, including laquered coffins and a throne carved of stone, were rather awesome.
After a quick lunch, we travelled all the way to the Great Wall. It was rather a magnificent sight to see the miles and miles of stone wall stretching on and on in the bright sunlight, beyond one's sight. While describing it is difficult, it was even harder climbing it! The stone steps were rather steep and uneven, and it was extremely tough to climb. We tried to see how far we could climb, given our limited time, but the view from where we were was already so beautiful we couldn't help stopping to admire it.
After a while, we had to go down, stopping to take pictures along the way. If we thought that climbing up was tought, going down was even more terrifying, as the steps were so uneven there was a rather good chance of us falling! However, we all agreed that the view was worth the climb.
We all loaded back onto the bus, visiting Beijing's Xiushuijie (roughly translated as Silk Street), a shopping centre where counterfeit goods were to be had at very cheap prices. Not only did they have counterfeit goods, they also sold jewellery and other accessories. We shopped and bargained to our hearts' content there, but at the same time making sure to stick together as a group and be sure of our valuables at all times.
After that, we returned to Beijing No. 8, thoroughly tired out from an extremely busy day.
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9:00 PM
DAY 10 -- Wednesday
Today... is last day we're attending the lessons with the Beijing No. 8 school students. *wails* We had Economics, Physics, History, Maths and Music lessons. In today's economics class, the teacher was rambling about some profound theories about "Currency vs. Value". We got to know a little about the uses of currency and it's relation to "Supply and Demand" . How interesting!
In Physics lesson, we went to their physics lab to do an experiment regarding straight line motion, but we did not really understand the theory behind it, as we were not physics students. Haha. ;)
History was easier to understand, because we have already ample knowledge about modern Chinese history. Anyway, we learnt about 甲午战争，which broke out in 1894 between the Manchu China and Japan because they were rivalling over the sovereignty of Korea. It was rather enriching. :)
Maths lesson was not as bad as we thought. We continued with functions but focused on inverse functions and a graph's 单调性 (hehe not sure what it is in English). The teacher instucted us try some textbook questions which we found quite ok. :)
Music lesson was changed to self study because their exams were around the corner. We took this opportunity to give our speech and took some pictures with our classmates. :)
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Day 9
Back to school lessons again. The classroom is much warmer than the outside, we realised. :)
First lesson: Maths! Finding inverse functions (反函数) of functions. Finding range and domain (值域和定域）of inverse functions. We learned that if a function had 单调性 it will definitely have an inverse function. We also learned that 原函数的定域就是反函数的值域。:) It was really weird learning maths in Chinese instead of English but we still understood the basics.
After that, it was Physics where the teacher went through a lot a lot of theories - all in Chinese again. This time, we really could not understand given that we are Bio and not Physics students. sigh. Tried to understand but well... :P
Chemistry was fun. The teacher does experients in class and everyone watches from their seats. She experimented with Li, Na and K's reaction with water.
Next was Chinese and we were taught a new essay called 《我与地坛》。 At first it sounded rather sadistic because it was about the author who felt like there was not much hope on Earth and he went to the 地坛 near his house where he suddenly felt his soul was rejuvenated again thanks to the soothing yet lively natural environment of the 地坛. He was then no longer afraid of Death and thought that it was something to be embraced when the time came.
After lunch, we had enrichment class. It was calligraphy! The practical part of the lesson was very fun. Each of us had a seperate table with paper, ink and a brush. We wrote the words 云腾露结 but in 繁体字. Although our works were not very professional due to severe lack of practice but it was still rather satisfactory. :)
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DAY 8-- Monday! Last day of TLE
Finally! This is the last day of TLE. Today, we went to "Crazy English". You know what ON EARTH that is? Well, it's actually an educational institution that trains the Chinese citizens to speak english with excellent pronounciation. They believe all people will achieve that aim if they speak, shout, scream, shriek english sentences everyday. That's their "crazy" and effective method. Well of course, we had a great time stretching our mouths to articulate the words "Ieeeeee Likeeeee Skyeeeeee" with perfect pronounciation. :) Then, we spent time understanding their company's management and operational methods. We suppose the founder had found a great, effective way of teaching the Chinese how to achieve greater heights for their English language .
In the afternoon, we embarked on a Scavenger Hunt in this populous Beijing city! Alas, we're all on our own in this foreign place. Waaaahhhhhhhhh! Voila!! We started at 五道口, where we have to travel to 王府井by the subway. Being cramped together in this dark, dingy train is quite an experience. "Celia, don't get left on the platform!" "Steffi, your bag! Beware of pickpockets!" What a group of cautious and careful little cats we are! Haha. At 王府井, we had lunch in a food court and went on to search for the famous "Prince's Well " and Saint Joseph Cathedral etc.
We found out that Beijing is a cosmolitan yet historical city; a meeting point of both oriental and western cultures. At last, we've finished most of our tasks, it's time to shop till we drop in the shopping paradise, 秀水大厦! In case you don't know, this is the ultimate place to shop for "branded" (counterfeit) goods, ranging from Chanel handbags, to Tod's leather shoes and Tiffanny & Co. bracelets. Haha. Actually, what's fun is not shopping, but bargaining, which all of us had become experts. Oh no, we've become haggling aunties! Anyway, after finding out the rental fees of the stalls here, we took the train back to school.
When we went back to the Beijing No.8 Middle School, we settled on the idea of a spa for our business plan. We planned to introduce spas of different cultures, specifically - mediterranean, continental & japanese. Apparently, the teacher from China was quite interested in our idea. I guess that why our business plan was chosen as the best. We managed to earn ourselves a complete set of the Beijing Olympics Friendlies!!! :)))
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Day 7
We visited the Ancient Observatory Museum today. It houses instruments which used to tell time, the position of the stars etc. From this, we could tell that China was already well ahead of her counterparts in Science & Mathematics in the past. We were assigned to do a worksheet which required us to find the name of certain meteorites & we also had to draw our own picture based on the constellations we saw. We managed to capture a good view of Beijing from the top floor of the museum!
We also visited the 琉璃厂 where we made our 印章 (stamps). The stamps are made from stones and they come in a myraid of designs, some of which include the 12 zodiacs & flowers. Most of us decided to carve our names on the stamps. These stamps when stained with red ink, helps to enhance the aesthetic appeal of chinese calligraphy. While waiting for our stamps to be carved, some of us wandered into a nearby museum. The range of exhibits put up on display was small and the shop which housed the museum was dark. As we made our way out of the museum, we were stopped by the shopkeeper who made us pay a token sum for visiting the museum. We were quite furious that we had to pay for visiting something that resembled another shop on the street!
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